The Republic of Liberia: The Republic of Mali; The Republic of Niger; The Federal Republic of Nigeria; e The Republic of Senegal; e The Republic of Sierra Leone; e The Togolese Republic; &. The Plaintiffs raised preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and after consideration of the facts /Law relied upon, the case was discontinued against the 2™, 3% 4 BY 7" gg int af 5" 13" and 14" defendants. The court found that there was a prima facie evidence of alleged violation of Human rights pursuant to Article 9(4) of the Protocol A/P1/07/491 as amended against the {*, 12" and 15" defendants namely Republic of Benin, The Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Togolese Republic. The Registry renumbered the latter countries as the {*", 2™ and 3” defendants, respectively. 7. The first Plaintiff testified and the parties filed their written submissions and adopted same and made oral address of the written submissions. Learned Counsels made oral submissions to amplify the difficult areas and rested their respective cases. Learned counsel for the plaintiff and the and 2™ defendants raised these issues for determination: o Whether the court has Jurisdiction to determine the matter. @ Whether from the averments of the plaintiffs and evidence before this court, the plaintiffs are entitled to the claim before the court. LEGAL ARGUMENTS 8. On the first issue for determination as to whether this court has jurisdiction to determine this matter, learned counsel to the { and 2" defendants reiterated that jurisdiction is the authority which a court has to decide on matters that are litigated before it or to take cognizance of matters 4